Purple Blossoms
by Annabrea-Shaw
Summary: We know why Dumbledore put on the Gaunt ring, why he sought the Resurrection Stone, why he and his brother never speak, but do we know how it began? this is the story of Ariana Dumbledore that mapped the actions of the most powerful wizard of our time.


**A.N. **Finished "Deathly Hallows" last night and knew that I had to write something about it, in honor of the series being complete and a part of my life that has been huge to me since I was seven coming to an end, so here it is. Enjoy, and please review, I'd really like any feedback.

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**Purple Blossoms**

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"Ariana, stay close!"

"Yes, mummy!" a little girl of seven, blond hair flying behind her, rushed out the back door of her home, barely taking the time to answer her mothers call as she headed for the little meadow down the road.

Passing through the gate in the hedged perimeter, Ariana slowed to a happy skip through the field of young flowers just beginning to peak through the glistening layer of slightly melting snow. The air was warm, much warmer than it had been so far this year in Mould-on-the-Wold, and Ariana could feel spring in the warm air, see it in the flower buds around her feet, smell it on the wind along with melting snow and pine trees.

It had been weeks since the blizzard, leaving her and her brothers cooped inside their home alone with their mother day after day, and with it being too cold to go outside alone, Ariana had quickly grown bored with only the two older boys for company.

But Mummy had said she could go play! Mummy had said that it was warm outside, and as long as she stayed close, she could go play!

So here she was, skipping merrily through a field of not yet blooming flowers, her light coat buttoned haphazardly to keep her safe from the slight chill that still remained. She skipped and she laughed, and she cooed as a little rabbit poked through a bush near her, and she came to a stop to watch the little creature snuffle through the light snow.

Plopping down onto the soft ground beneath her, Ariana giggled as the rabbit started at the noise she made, freezing for only a moment before darting off into the bushes he had emerged from and disappearing.

With a sigh, she looked around. "It's so pretty."

Ariana smiled brightly as she reached over to a little nest of flowers a few inches from her knee. The buds were small, smaller than most of the other plants beginning to grow in the meadow, and looked a little weak in the still chilly air. As the girls small fingers trailed over an even smaller leaf in a way that would someday be mirrored by a young Lily Evans, the plant suddenly began to grow.

The stems and leaves gained color, and grew thicker and brighter, as the plant seemed to reach upwards, growing taller and taller until it would reach the girls knees if she stood. Bright purple flowers blossomed from healthy buds and soon covered the whole bush. Now, where seconds before had been a struggling, decrepit plant, now stood a tall, proud flower bush that seemed to encourage all the struggling plants around it just by being so magnificent.

Ariana smiled, delighted at the flowers and stood to pick one. She was just placing the bloom behind her ear when she heard a twig snap nearby and looked around for the source.

"How'd you do that?" a familiar voice demanded from close behind her. Turning around, she saw Charles Thosten, a boy a few years older than her from the village just down the road, come out from behind the bush the rabbit had disappeared into.

"Oh, hello Charles…hello Brian, Joseph, how are you all today?"

As she greeted the boy Brian and Joseph Muller came out from behind the bushes as well, their tall forms coming to stand next to Charles.

"Don't be stupid kid," Charles glared, coming to stand over her, "how'd you make that plant grow?" Ariana glanced back at the bush just behind her.

_"Remember Ariana, if you ever make something happen, something by magic, you can't tell anyone but us, okay? If someone from the town asks you, if any muggles ask you, you say you don't know and come right home, okay?"_

She could remember her fathers words clearly, his warning from the first time she'd made magic happen had stayed firmly in her head since then. Eager to do as told, she turned back to Charles, Brian, and Joseph, who had all come to closer with Brian and Joseph on either side and Charles in front of her.

"I don't know, but I should go home, I'm sure Mummy's finished lunch by now." And she made to step away, only to have Brian push her back when she stepped around him.

Charles leaned foreword. "You want to go home? Well, first you have to do that trick again. Make another plant grow, Dumbledore!"

"But…But I don't know how…" Charles kicked her in the ankle and she fell, it had _hurt_.

"Well, make it happen!" When Joseph pushed her still sitting form away, and she came face to face with another small plant, Ariana could only look hopelessly in the way of her home, pleading silently for the older boys to let her go. "Well?" Charles's demanding voice came from next to her. "Make it happen freak, make the plant grow like you did the other one." At her repeated declaration of not knowing how, Charles kicked her again. "You'd better show me, freak, or you're gonna regret it!"

"Please, Charles, I just wanna go home. My Da can do it. I can ask him to show you when I go home for lunch, if you want."

"No!" Charles pushed her back onto the ground, muddying her slightly damp coat, "I want you to do it, and if you can't then that's not good for you, freak. Your whole family are freaks, the whole lot of you, weirdo's! Now make the plant grow freak!"

Tears leaked from Ariana's eyes as she looked back at the short stems and tiny bids of the baby bush. "But I don't know how!" She cried again in desperation, crying harder when Charles kicked her again. "Then try, weirdo! And stop crying!"

Gasping for air and wiping her eyes, Ariana looked back towards her house,_ Da! Da, I can't come home! Come get me, Da! Mummy! _And reached with tentative, hopeful fingers out to the nearest leaf of the plant. She caressed it just like she had the other one, and fervently prayed that it would grow, but after a minute or two, the plant still remained the same small, struggling, and seemingly slouching plant it had started as.

"Well? Make it grow!"

"But I can't! I'm trying –" Anything she may have said was cut off and Charles kicked her again in the side and she fell over, the wind rushing from she lungs as a chocked sob escaped her.

"You stupid freak! If you won't show me your trick, then I'll tech you never to do it again!" And he was kicking her again, while Brian and Joseph hit her on her face and arms.

_Da! Da, help me! Mummy! Al, Abe! Come get me, please! _

Blows reigned down upon her, Charles kept kicking her and the Muller boys wouldn't stop hitting her. Oh, it hurt so bad.

_Please! Please, if you stop, I promise never to do magic again! Ever, ever! I swear! Please stop, please!_

"Mummy…"

Charles laughed and kicked her again. "You're mummy won't come help you, freak. You're all freaks. They talk about you in the village. You and your family and all your freak friends. You're all weirdo's, crazy every last one of you! Everyone hates you, you stupid girl! You're so stupid. No one will care if you die, did you know that? Not even your family will care, cause all you freaks hate each other!"

Ariana whimpered. That wasn't true, was it? He family loved her. Her mummy and her da and her brothers? And Miss Shelly next door liked her; she always let her help make jams and butter. And ol' Mr. Enten and his granddaughter Kay? They liked her, didn't they? They were her friends; they'd care if she got hurt, right?

_Mummy, I promise I'll be good! Please come get_ _me!_

But they kept hitting her, Charles kept kicking her harder and harder, and he wouldn't stop. He kept saying things like "freak; stupid, stupid girl; nobody cares huh?" and she hurt, all over, and it was so bad she wished she was dead.

_I'll never do magic again, I **swear**!_

And then it stopped. Had she heard a shout? And then she was being picked up, warm arms circling her and carrying her. _Da?_ "It's me, baby. It's me. I'm gonna take you home to your mother, okay. She'll get you fixed up, just hold on Ariana."

And he was yelling again, shouting for her mother. And Albus and Aberforth were yelling, and her mother screamed, and she was laid down on her bed, she could feel the soft bed covers beneath her. Mummy was pulling off her coat, why was it red? It was supposed to be white…wasn't it?

"Mummy?"

"Yes, child, hold on, okay, we need to get you clean okay, clean and warm."

"I'll never do magic again, Mummy. I promise. I promise I'll be good, really! I promise Mummy!"

"Shh, baby. It's okay. We'll talk later alright, for now just sit still, okay?" And then she had turned away "Abe, I need another basin of warm water! Percy, hold her okay? Albus, do not go anywhere, I'll need you to help me." And then she was back again, her bright eyed looking at Ariana in fear and worry, and her hair had come out of its bun. It was falling around her shoulders, now, brushing up against Ariana's face as she was rapped loosely in a warm sheet.

PB

Kendra was pulling a small flask from a potions kit, pouring the contents into her daughter's mouth she watched as Dreamless Sleep took hold of the girl, and she drifted off, eyes closing and looking almost peaceful. But the bandages wrapped around her still healing wounds declared otherwise, and Kendra feared for her little girl. What had those boys done to her, why had she promised never to do magic again?

Her eyes had held a look, she had been hurt and frightened and alone; three emotions she'd never seen in her daughters face before. Trusting her sons to watch their sister and warn her if anything changed, Kendra made her way back down stairs to her husband, who was looking out the window in the direction of the village.

"She promised never to do magic again."

Kendra could feel his pain at this, could feel the hurt and the fright that gripped him just like it gripped her daughter, but for a different reason. "Yes. She promised never to do magic again, she promised to be good. What did they do to her, Percy?"

And then she was in his arms, and he was holding her tight, and they were both looking at the barely visible village a little ways away under the steadily darkening sky. How could those boys have hurt her baby so much?

"I'm going to go after them, Kendra." The way he'd said it, Kendra knew she'd never be able to stop him. Not now that he'd seen the look in Ariana's eyes and had made up his mind. "I'm going to go after them and they are never going to do this to someone again." She nodded.

"Okay, Percy, okay. But go tomorrow, please. Wait until Adriana has woken up and say goodbye. Please?" He nodded into her hair and he sighed. Her poor little angel.

PB

**Three Muggles Found Murdered**

**Percival Dumbledore Arrested**

**By; Franklin Amer**

Late last night Aurors from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement arrived in the small muggle village near Mould-On-The-Wold to discover the sight of three young muggles murdered. It appeared that the boys had been attacked, their bodies were badly beaten and bruised, determined to be the result of several low powered bludgeoning curses, and there was evidence the boys had been tortured extensively via Cruiciatus curse. It is unclear why the boys were attacked, but after extensive questioning of muggles and magical folk in the nearby area, Dumbledore was arrested early this morning, leaving his wife, Kendra, to take care of their three children; Albus, 10, Aberforth, 9, and Adriana, 7, who has recently fallen ill, while he awaits trial in a ministry holding cell. The trial is to be held next Thursday at the ministry, and is an open event for all who wish to attend.


End file.
